Hello again!

First, the answers to yesterday's Fun Safari Puzzle. Most of you probably spotted the elephants in the foreground - gentle giants, sure, but those tusks aren't just for show.

The more eagle eyed among you may have noticed the hippos in the background. Although they don't eat meat, they'll still mess you up - they're often cited as the most dangerous animals in the park.

Only the very keenest observers, however, would have spotted the crocodile. If you did, give yourself a pat on the back! If you didn't, maybe reconsider your swimming plans.

The Big Five

While we're on the topic of spotting things: we gotta talk about how we keep score on these game drives, because it just makes no sense at all.

The list you get when you come into these parks trying is The Big Five: Lion, elephant, buffalo, rhino and leopard. Four out of five, actually pretty cool - but the inclusion of the buffalo is a clue that this list is a real anachronism.

That's because the big five is a holdover from when we were shooting bullets, not photos - and on foot, not from vehicles. They're at this weird nexus of a) having valuable body parts, and b) being dangerous, and thus rare, to hunt

Hence the buffalo, over, say, the more dangerous hippo - buffalo horns would be infinitely more fun to put on the wall of your lodge than a hippo skull.

But what makes something difficult and valuable to kill doesn't correlate with making it difficult or valuable to spot and/or photograph

So, based the much more relevant factors of a) I've got in my camera roll and b) how excited I am to have it there, here's my suggestions for what we should replace the buffalo with in the year 2024:

Cheetah

It just seems rude to leave the fastest big cat off the list, in my opinion - and fits the OG criteria of pretty and hard to shoot, while meeting also meeting the new criteria of... pretty and hard to shoot. Unless they're just sitting around like these guys, I guess.

Lioness

It's the 21st century, folks. A modern big five should have some women in positions of power, and and as the only big cat with a word just for the ladies, my vote's for the lioness. Although autocorrect tells me leopardess is actually a word, so who knows?

Plus, apparently they do the lion's share (ha) of the work to bring home the bacon. Or, buffalo, as it were.

Elephant again.

They're amazing and they deserve to be included twice, that's all I'm saying. Go on, name a better animal to include twice, I dare you.

Ostrich

A rogue inclusion, I'll acknowledge - but I actually saw more leopards on this trip than I did ostriches, so statistically, ostriches are Very Rare and thus belong on the list.

Inverted Zebra

While the regular zebra is very common, the inverted zebra is much harder to find, and requires a keen eye and a fast shutter to properly capture. Very much worth including, in my book.

Dik Dik

Mostly for the name.

(If you can't find a Dik Dik, a willy willy is an acceptable substitute.)

Influencer

I have been wanting to spot one of these in the wild since we booked this trip - and just when I was ready to give up, one showed up at our campsite!

Giraffe.

No explanation required.

Rocky.